Our strategy for the coming month involves extending the measures currently in force
, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Saturday 5 December adding then that for Christmas and New year we will have some exceptions
.
This easing of restrictions, which mainly concerns the 113 municipalities (out of a total of 308) where the risk of contamination with the new coronavirus remains extremely high
or very high
, will nevertheless have to be confirmed on December 18, he said at a press conference.
Since the end of October, the Portugal imposed a partial containment which has been gradually extended to most of the country.
Schools and shops open
In the most affected areas, a night and weekend curfew has been introduced, but schools and businesses have not closed as in the spring.
For the Christmas weekend, the government does not plan to ban traffic between municipalities, as it did this weekend and the previous one. For New Year’s Eve, this measure will be introduced again to avoid travel across the country.
At Christmas and New Years, curfew hours will be reduced and restaurants may close later.
The state of emergency in effect since November 9 was formally extended on Friday until December 23, and the country’s leaders have already warned that it will be extended at least until January 7.
Thanks to these measures, Portugal detected less than 4,000 new cases per day on average over the past week, against nearly 6,500 daily infections two weeks earlier.
Number of hospitalizations still high
On the other hand, the number of hospitalizations still peaked at a level considered extremely high
by the Prime Minister, with around 3,300 people hospitalized in total, including more than 500 in intensive care units.
With its population of 10 million, Portugal had nearly 5,000 dead on Saturday since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the national vaccination plan drafted this week, the country expects to receive 22 million doses of vaccines from January and will begin by vaccinating 950,000 people considered to be priorities.
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